


Hardersson vs. Corona

by Erika_K



Series: One-shot Collection [6]
Category: Magdalena Eriksson & Pernille Harder, Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25152106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erika_K/pseuds/Erika_K
Summary: I wrote the first version of this more or less at the same time when all of this was actually happening.I didn’t continue it at some point because I felt that I really didn’t want to think about this topic anymore than I had to anyway.I also wondered if this was really “Hardersson enough” because much of what comes up here are experiences that probably a large part of the world made during those weeks. So maybe it was more my way to process that time than an actual Hardersson story?Anyway… Since a lot has become normal again at least in my part of the world, I could deal with this again. And  after reading it again and editing some stuff, I also felt there was enough Hardersson in it.So here you go…A shout out goes to @fcb-sweden (Tumblr) for allowing me to use her hashtag as a title and as always to @cupidwriter (Tumblr and ao3) for patiently dealing with my non-nativespeaker problems.I would love to hear what you think! So please leave comments or write to me on Tumblr (@erika---k).
Relationships: Magdalena Eriksson/Pernille Harder
Series: One-shot Collection [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569001
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	Hardersson vs. Corona

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the first version of this more or less at the same time when all of this was actually happening.
> 
> I didn’t continue it at some point because I felt that I really didn’t want to think about this topic anymore than I had to anyway.
> 
> I also wondered if this was really “Hardersson enough” because much of what comes up here are experiences that probably a large part of the world made during those weeks. So maybe it was more my way to process that time than an actual Hardersson story?
> 
> Anyway… Since a lot has become normal again at least in my part of the world, I could deal with this again. And after reading it again and editing some stuff, I also felt there was enough Hardersson in it. 
> 
> So here you go…
> 
> A shout out goes to @fcb-sweden (Tumblr) for allowing me to use her hashtag as a title and as always to @cupidwriter (Tumblr and ao3) for patiently dealing with my non-nativespeaker problems.
> 
> I would love to hear what you think! So please leave comments or write to me on Tumblr (@erika---k).

**Kingston upon Thames March/April 2020**

She is notoriously known for talking rubbish when she wakes up. Her family, teammates she shared a room with, not least Magda... they all have many stories to share about Pernille babbling odd things when she drifts from dream to reality. Apparently that transition is an unusually long process for her brain and she asks questions or makes comments that for someone who has no idea what she just dreamt of are completely out of context and often hilariously absurd.

But those are just the moments when she actually talks in that state. The people laughing at her have no idea how often she wakes up confused as fuck without them even realising. There are many mornings when it might not translate into anything she says but when she still has a hard time to sort out which of the thoughts in her head are actually real.

Right now fragments of a disaster movie must have sneaked into her dream and a deadly virus spreading over the world somehow mixed with her reality of visiting Magda in London.

She blinks into the morning light while she tries to get a grip on the chaos in her head. The first slightly clearer thought that appears is that they must have watched that movie at least two nights ago, because she must have had the same dream last night as well. She remembers when she woke up yesterday she had the same daze in her head.

It must have been a very impressive disaster movie if it influences her dreams two nights in a row…

And then it sinks in... as it did the day before… There is no disaster movie, there is no weird dream that sneaked into her reality…

Not this time…

All the things in her head about what their lives look like right now are actual memories of the previous days and actual knowledge of what is happening in the world right now…

She looks over to the other side of the bed, where Magda is scrolling on her tablet, apparently already awake for some time.

“Britain 5093… Sweden 1245... Denmark 1045… Germany 15320…”

Pernille closes her eyes again for a moment.

“Good morning to you, too!” she says, when she finally forces herself to open her eyes again.

Magda smiles at her. “Sorry!” She leans over and kisses her good morning. “I didn’t want to attack you with this, but it’s really… What the fuck…?!”

Pernille rolls over to Magda’s side looking at her tablet with her. This is how they start their days now. Lying in bed together and browsing through one of the pages that is trying to provide an overview over the numbers the world is staring at right now. Total numbers, new infections per day, deaths… In plain numbers and plotted into curves…

Very much upward sloping curves...

“Fuuuck… Look at Italy and Spain…!”

“Almost all countries have a death rate of under 1 %, mostly lower. But look at Britain.. That’s almost 10 %.”

“How can that be?!”

“In Italy it’s just as high!”

“But in Italy hospitals can’t handle things anymore… People are dying because they can’t be treated! The other countries still can, including Britain. So what is happening here?”

“It’s probably the testing. That’s also why they have much fewer cases than Germany. If you just test the obvious and severe cases there are also more of those seriously ill people who die. The number doesn’t get diluted like it would if you also test mild cases."

Conversations these days… numbers of infections, death rates, comparability of statistics...

A week ago they have still been at the Algarve… It seems like months ago!

Corona left the news and became real when some teammates couldn’t travel to the Algarve cup, because they got stuck in northern Italy. That was unfortunate but it would be solved somehow. The Italians quarantined those areas. It would blow over.

Their main concern at that point was how happy Magda could allow herself to be to take over the mid back position and become the head defence player in the national team, when she knew that the reason for that was a teammate’s misfortune to play in Turin of all places.

But things escalated quickly. No one was supposed to shake hands. Which seemed totally ridiculous considering how you felt the opponent’s breath in your neck during a tackle. But… well… Football players were role models. So if this taught kids to take this seriously, so be it.

Magda and Pernille met up the evening before the big Scandinavian derby when Corona already dominated the headlines. One of their many, many reunions after not having seen each other for weeks.

They hugged and kissed, before they could even think about it. Of course they did! Kissing again, feeling the other’s body in their arms again was what they were looking forward to all the time they were apart. It wasn't seriously expected that couples all over the world kept away from each other now, was it? Well, now it was too late anyway.

Corona could go and fuck itself!

They sat in a restaurant with a view over the ocean and wondered. Well, usually couples were together all the time. And hugged and kissed and did other things continuously. And if you kissed yesterday there was no point in stopping now because if one had it you both had it by now anyway.

They on the other hand hadn’t seen each other in weeks. If one of them was infected the other one would not have caught it yet… At least not until 20 minutes ago… But after the lengthy welcome they had given each other... Yeah, well, it was definitely too late now...

And seriously... They didn’t want to even consider this. They didn’t want to spend more time even talking about this. To throw playful threats and trash talk at each other before tomorrow's game was much more important. 

After dinner they walked hand in hand along the beach, shoes in hand, the ocean washing around their feet.

Later they lay in each other's arms in the sand and made plans for Pernille's upcoming visit in London.

Once twilight set in, lips and hands could discreetly wander off, so the lack of a shared hotel room wasn’t a too significant shortcoming for the evening.

Corona could go and fuck itself!

Their teammates thought it was hilarious that Magda and Pernille weren't supposed to shake hands at the center circle. Of course they knew they had met up last night, so if Corona really still needed this handshake to jump over it was surprisingly stupid…

And apparently it wasn’t, considering how successful it had been on its march around the globe up to now. Anyway they did the elbow bump… role model and all that…

It all seemed almost funny and pretty ridiculous up to this point.

The last games without an audience…? Not so funny anymore! The silence from the empty stands… Eerie… Threadful… This didn’t seem like a joke anymore. A canceled finale made that clear even more…

They had planned to go to London together anyway. Now that there were hints that all football playing would be put on hold for some time, it might even be a few more days than they had initially thought. Unfortunate that some games would be postponed, but they had some more days together. So, yes a weird situation… But for them... not that bad actually.

Some more days… It has actually been a week now, but it seems like an eternity, because so much has changed since then.

Things that seemed absurd to even think about just a few days ago, are a given now.

When someone had asked Pernille back then what their reaction would be, if they were told that all football playing would be set on hold…

...that it would be unclear if the season would even be finished at a later time… ...that Wolfsburg’s and Chelsea’s incredible success up to now might have no effect whatsoever, because there would be no winner... not of the national leagues, not of the Champions League, not of the cup tournaments... Because the rest of the season might just be canceled...

Yeah, if someone had asked her that, she would have laughed and asked why that should happen?!

And if she had seriously thought about what their reaction might have been she would have predicted that they would be fuming! Ready to fight who ever would even suggest such a thing! Doing furious interviews and trying to get public support to get this absurd decision retracted.

Now she is totally calm.

It feels like it hardly touches her.

She is surprised by her own indifference.

She tells Magda about it over breakfast and Magda says she feels the same. And also she isn’t sure why.

“I would like to say it’s because we know the reason. Because we know there are other things that seem so much more important than football right now… But I don’t think that’s it really. Because even though I know that people are sick and die and the economy might start dwindling… It still feels so far away!”

That’s true actually. As Pernille is sitting here watching TV - leaned back into Magda’s arm on the backrest of the sofa behind her, her feet on Magda’s coffee table right next to the plate with the crumbs of her avocado toast, a coffee mug in hand - those news on the morning program seem like from another bizarre world that has nothing to do with her. 

“Maybe we just haven’t really gotten yet that all of this is really happening! Maybe we start to get angry and disappointed when we start to grasp that it’s actually true…”

“Or we get really scared because by then we have understood what is really going on here so that the question of whether or not our teams finish the season top of the league is actually not a priority anymore...”

They agree. They feel the same way. As they almost always do about almost everything. Now they also feel confused in just the same way when facing a global virus pandemic.

The scale of people’s reactions to this whole situation ranges from disregard to annoyance to panic.

Magda and Pernille follow the news of four countries. Which doesn’t exactly make things less confusing, because it soon gets pretty obvious that also for governments and authorities there are many ways to approach this.

Compared to Denmark, Britain seems to be in denial! Compared to Britain, Denmark seems to be seriously overreacting! Germany and Sweden are still discussing and reflecting even though it seems that there really might be no time for that.

So what do you do? Who is right? Who do you listen to?

It definitely feels really daunting that in British pubs people still hang drunkenly in each others arms while in Denmark not just the pubs but even the schools are closed and everybody is the fuck supposed to stay away from each other!

When Pernille sees kids walk to school in the morning, she usually notices the school uniforms as something that’s odd for her Danish mind to see. Now it seems really off that British children are actually still going to school at all!

So if you’re not sure, it’s probably best to just listen to your instincts.

The clubs are rather safe than sorry anyway and tell their players to avoid any risks.

So they stay home as much as possible. They train in Magda’s backyard. They still dare to run outside, trying to keep the recommended distance from everyone they meet. When they go shopping they almost feel guilty for buying a little more than they usually would, but this is not about stockpiling, it’s about having a few more days until you have to go shopping again.

Also all of this they agree on. 

This is what it has always been like. Since the day they met…

...their fascination for their sport...

...their experience of growing up as a girl playing football…

...books, films and TV-shows that they love and that they loved, because even when they were little kids it have already always been the same, even if in a different translation…

...their agreement that at a certain point in their lives their career was the main focus…

...and two years later the same understanding that their priorities started to change and their relationship should get more emphasis now…

One of them explains to the other how she feels or what she thinks and the other one’s answer has always been “Yes, exactly! - I know exactly what you mean! - I feel the same way!”

It has always made things so easy between them but now in all this uncertainty and craziness it’s almost invaluable to have Magda by her side who she knows will always see things the way she does.

They agree about which level of caution is adequate, but it goes further than that. For them this might be inconvenient and unsettling, but they are totally aware that for other people it’s a disaster and they don’t want to diminish that. So they almost feel bad for it, but to each other they dare to admit anyway, that there are some things about this that are even kind of nice in a way.

They can spend time together obviously but there is more.

Everytime the recommendations of who you’re still allowed to get close to are recited, everytime new rules come up in any country, an expression is repeatedly used: People who live in one household…

That’s them! Right now at least…

They themselves know and have known for a long time that they belong together, but in official eyes “girlfriends” is not really anything. But now they suddenly got a status!

After also Britain introduces lockdown rules, it’s obvious for everybody, when they go out for a run together, side by side.

Occasionally you meet police patrols now that keep an eye on if people stick to the rules. The officers look at them and don't say anything. Apparently they just understand that they belong together. And if they asked, they would tell them: “We are one household.”

It sounds weirdly formal, but Pernille really likes it.

Others might think it’s ridiculous, but when she tells Magda about it while they run along the Thames, Magda just smiles contentedly at her and runs yet a little closer beside her for the rest of their route - because they are allowed to, because they are one household.

Already when they have just been friends but even more so of course since they got together they have been so close to each other. But now with all the time they spend together, just the two of them surrounded by all this weirdness, they feel that their connection is getting even closer.

They are in a bubble with just the two of them. The situation out there in the world might get more and more peculiar, but in their bubble things feel safe and cozy.

While there are reports and concerns that the stress from this crisis will destroy relationships, they are just so happy to have each other.

There are various historical comparisons to the Corona crises - or whatever this will be called when it one day finds its way into the history books.

“...as defining and fundamental as the Second World War…”

They spend the evenings of this historical event cuddled up on the sofa watching TV, while Amazon keeps insisting for them to watch “Contagion”.

They remember high school Social Science classes on the role of entertainment during the war: Corny songs and shallow love movies that kept people happy and distracted from reality…

After the TV is switched off they lie on the sofa together and wonder what it says about their generation that Amazon’s “Most watched…” in their age profile right now seems like a preview of the darkest worst case scenario instead.

Magda’s sofa is not made for two people to lie next to each other, a common problem when Pernille is in London. They can’t avoid to lie half on top of each other, Magda’s arms wrapped around Pernille, to keep her from sliding off. It doesn’t matter, they don’t want any distance between them anyway.

This is what they are. Best friends, talking for hours, sharing thoughts and opinions they wouldn’t discuss with anybody else.

And at the same time Pernille is very much aware that with her face nestled against Magda’s neck, her lips move against Magda’s skin everytime she speaks.

She feels how Magda’s hand has found the gap between her shirt and her trousers, her thumb gently caressing her skin.

...their physical closeness as well as their bodies’ reactions to it very obviously beyond that of best friends…

Pernille looks up at Magda. They smile at each other and agree without words to leave the sociological considerations for now.

Hands start wandering, lips find each other. Even if they have been together like this uncounted times now, they still enjoy every touch, every advance that brings them closer to where they know this is going.

Pernille’s hand moving up under Magda’s shirt, Magda’s thigh casually ending up between Pernille’s legs.

With Magda’s focus on other things now she forgets that her arms have an additional mission here beside just hugging Pernille because it feels good. When she loosens her grip to move her hand, Pernille loses her balance.

Having been very much occupied with other things as well, she isn’t fast enough to grab anything to hold onto and ends up on the floor. Her head has a fierce encounter with the table leg.

Magda’s worried face appears at the edge of the sofa above her. “Oh, fuck, I’m sorry! Are you ok!?”

Pernille sits up and rubs her head “We’re supposed to not unnecessarily strain the health care system right now! And you almost gave them an additional headwound to take care off!”

“I’m so sorry!” Magda looks really guilty.

She gets up and reaches out her hand, helping Pernille up from the floor and dragging her towards her.

Her hand moves up into her hair, carefully searching for the spot that hit the table. “There?”

Pernille nods.

Magda pulls her into a tight embrace, still carefully caressing the bump.

“I’ll make this up to you…” A suggestive whisper at Pernille’s ear.

Pernille leans back to look at her, smiling mischievously. According to experience Magda will not be any less dedicated if the bump on her head was not her fault, but Pernille will let her get out of this smoothly. “I’m sure you will…”

They have a 1,60 bed in the bedroom that prevents any further accidents of this kind for the rest of the night. Somewhere along the line Magda reaches for her phone and switches off the alarm that hasn’t been set particularly early anyway.

Yes, it’s advised to keep a regular schedule even these days, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t sleep in some days when it got late the night before.

\--------

Germany has gotten cold feet a week after Denmark and closed everything. Britain yet another week later, as did Sweden even if less drastically.

A week!

That seems like an eternity these days. In terms of what happened during that week. In terms of how the numbers had time to raise uninterruptedly.

Great Britain 24219…, Sweden 3069… Danmark 2200… Germany just cracked the 50000…

It’s irrationally soothing to be a national of a smaller country. The numbers from Sweden and Denmark sound so much less scary than the ones from Great Britain and Germany even though they know that with reference to the population they don’t look that much better anymore.

Anyway it’s amazing how fast a number that seemed high a few days ago can seem like peanuts in the light of today's numbers.

Exponential growth… It’s explained three times a day in every news program by now, but even if it wasn’t, they remember enough of their high school mathematics to know that in terms of virus infections it’s a bad thing!

They are in their mid twenties and as well trained as you can be. They get regularly checked-up by their medical staff so they can be pretty certain that they have no undiscovered heart condition or anything like that, that could become their downfall if they catch the virus. So they definitely shouldn’t spread it for the sake of others, but they themselves should be safe, even if they catch it!

But of course there is more to all of this than just the possibility to get sick. What will all of this lead to in the end?

When they come back home from a run, they meet some of Magda’s neighbours. Except for nodding to each other across the street, Magda has not had much contact with most of them up to now. Older people, families… Not much they would have in common...

But suddenly you have a lot in common with almost everyone.

Which supermarket does still sell toilet paper, pasta, yeast...? Handsanitizer is pointless anyway! No one has any idea where to get that anymore! 

And they certainly know that Magda’s... errr… friend is from Germany.

“I bet you're glad you're here? Those infection numbers in Germany look really scary!”

“Well, it might just be the testing that's different!”

A conversation like any other you have with people from the outside world these days. You stand in a circle, two meters apart. It looks like you want to summon a ghost that is supposed to rise from the imaginary centre you’ve all gathered around.

Magda and Pernille know that the shortages are not the first sign of a problem with the food supply.

They know it’s due to people panic buying not because there actually is a shortage! 

...which doesn’t change the fact that by now they actually do need fucking toilet paper!

Pernille roams the third supermarket with empty shelves where rice, pasta and well... toilet paper should be. Even with the knowledge that the next delivery will come tomorrow - as an employee who is visibly on the brink to lose his patience, tries to explain to a panicking customer who obviously doesn’t believe him - this is a daunting sight.

Pernille apologises at the checkout to pass the queue, because she hasn’t got anything to pay for. She gets a lot of angry looks, because she can’t avoid getting closer to some people than it is recommended right now.

She is glad when she gets out of the door. You never know how worked up people are these days. It’s a frightening atmosphere even if you don’t assume that you’re in for a collapse of the food supply.

She arrives at the car without having ended up in a fistfight. Magda, who has been on a toilet paper hunt at the drugstore on the other side of the street, arrives at the same time.

“Did you get something?” Pernille knows the question is redundant since Magda is obviously empty handed, but she asks anyway.

Magda shakes her head. She beeps the car open and they get in. “Did you?” 

„No…“ Pernille shakes her head as well.

“Shit!” A smile jumps to Magda’s face when she realises what she just said. “...literally…!”

They look at each other and start giggling. They both know this wasn’t THAT funny, but if you focus on the absurdity of the situation you might be able to ignore how fucking scary you also might consider all of this to be!

So they crack up until they have to gasp for air, until tears run down their cheeks and the next laughing fit hits them when they just look at each other.

It’s so nice to see Magda laugh like this, to see her this unrestrained. And Pernille feels such a relief to completely lose it herself! They have been so fucking rational about all of this all this time but deep down they are aware that the situation gets to them.

In the evening they lie on the sofa again and talk. Pernille relying on Magda’s arms again to defy gravity.

They both know that it was pretty much a conscious decision to have a laughing fit instead of freaking out. There are fears that have been lurking in the back of their heads.

What if…?

What if this takes a long time? A really long time? What if everything is shut down for so long that everything collapses? What if in a few months the empty shelves in the supermarkets won’t be restocked everyday anymore because there actually is nothing anymore to fill them up with?

“...an impact like the Second World War…”

Will there be a revival of food rationing stamps? They remember their grandparents’ stories about collecting weeks of the whole family’s sugar rations to be able to bake a cake.

And they have international friends. They know that grandparents in other countries can tell stories that aren’t about collecting sugar for cake but about adventurous undertakings to get any food at all.

They have held this back but now it bubbles up.

What if so many people get sick or die that everything gets fucked up completely? What if the few people panicking now isn’t the end of it? What if there are masses of people freaking out? What if there are many, many people who have nothing to lose anymore and the wrong people scent their opportunity to give them easy answers…? ... and what might all of that lead to…?

What if in the end there is no authority anymore that might even issue any rationing stamps?! What if everything goes to hell?

It’s such a relief to have someone to share these fears with. Someone who doesn’t tell you you’re being ridiculous. Magda admits that, yes, thoughts like these are in the back of her mind, too. But at the same time they both agree that it’s still very, very unlikely that it will actually come to this.

They have helped each other through injuries, through tough career decisions, through the aftermaths of games they fucked up and through insecurities during the first weeks at new clubs and lonely evenings right after moves to new countries.

All of that is fading of course in the light of these fears, and still even the thought of having to survive in some post-apocalyptic scenario seems so much less scary with Magda by her side.

Magda smiles when Pernille tells her that. She runs her fingers through Pernille’s hair.

“I have a lot of trust in us as well and I really don’t want to worry you... but I honestly don’t think the two of us will successfully fight off marauding gangs on a daily basis…” 

“No, probably not,” Pernille has to smile as well. “But also choosing a marauding gang to join to ensure our survival and negotiating our admittance… I’m really glad I won’t have to do that alone either!”

Magda grins at her mischievously. “Oh, no! We won’t join one! We’ll establish our own one! And control the whole territory of what used to be London!”

Leave it to Magda to make Pernille laugh even now.

Tonight the future alpha pair that is to rule post-collapse London takes it to the bedroom before anyone falls off the sofa.

\-------

They still regularly check the numbers. 

Great Britain 48718… Sweden 5568… Danmark 3573… Germany 84794…

The effect of any measures will only be noticeable with a delay of two weeks. Because of the incubation period… Everybody has become a little virologist by now and knows stuff like this…

Is that slight leveling of Denmark’s curve a first visible effect…? Will Germany, Britain and Sweden follow later because they closed everything later? Or is it just a random decline in the numbers anyway and in a few days the increase will just continue as before?

Whether the numbers look good or not, for them it feels like things actually calm down.

Maybe because they got used to how things are now. Maybe because they see that up to now neither a food shortage nor civil unrest seem to be looming.

The slight anxiety that has been lurking in the background is gradually lifting.

They have found a routine. Nothing is normal, but by now it’s not normal in a predictable way.

They are in contact with their clubs. Still no one really knows anything… They are supposed to keep themselves prepared… Maybe things might continue… But up to now no one really knows if and when...

So they enjoy their time together.

Usually when they see each other they feel that they need to make use of every day; every hour and minute even. Anything else would feel like a waste of their valuable time together.

Now they can just hang out together, each doing their own thing, but with the content comfortable feeling that the other is there with her. It feels like days off in Linköping, just that it’s not one day, but that it seems to last forever.

They never get bored. It’s actually nice to know that they are not wasting time, when they do things that usually would seem pointless. Now they know they don’t have better things to do anyway.

A tablet game occupies them for days. Giving rise to a fierce competition as games are prone to do whenever Magda is involved. So even if they can’t play football at least they can still drill their attitude.

Any previous worries that they might be in for a shortage of food seem absurd considering what turns up on their table every day.

Usually during the season they eat at their clubs. If they cook at home it’s mostly just for themselves and for just one person they don’t put too much effort in.

But now it’s the two of them. They cook for each other, for the person they are most eager to spoil and most eager to impress.

Well, it’s mostly Magda who’s doing the cooking, but the parts that Pernille is involved in she puts all her blood, sweat and tears into as well.

They have time. To cook as well as to eat. Whatever they conjure is appreciated and enjoyed in a set-up that gives it the adequate recognition.

There are still some things that are difficult to come by. They bake with whole grain flour because to find normal flour is still hopeless, but that hardly diminishes the overall quality of their meals.

They might not be able to go out anymore, but most restaurants offer food to take home to at least get some continuous income. So some evenings they treat themselves to restaurant food at home with the unique opportunity to claim that they’re helping to maintain the local economy.

Out there a crisis of historical dimension might go on, but in here they are having candlelight dinners.

Many sentences these days start with: When this is over…

That’s the time you can make plans for now… When this is over… Whenever that will be...

When this is over they will travel again.

When this is over they will meet with their friends again.

They will go out again to clubs to party and to restaurants to eat.

When this is over they will play football again! There will be a first time when they meet with their teams again. A first time when they train with them again. There will be a first opening whistle to the first game they will play again after this.

They often talk about this… Making plans, dreaming… And wondering when it finally will be over!

Interviews from the kitchen table and from Magda's desk are another new experience the Corona time brings along.

They have rarely been as demanded for interviews as they are now. The sports news programs need content. Since there are no sports events anymore they could cover, they need to fill their time with other material. The media want opinions on canceled or postponed sports events and want to know how athletes keep their form when they're not supposed to go outside.

While Magda is preparing for an interview in her room, Pernille sits on the sofa reading, when suddenly she remembers what she left on the nightstand last night, after they… On the nightstand that’s right behind the desk Magda is sitting at and probably just switching on the camera right now….

Did Magda remember to put it away…?

Pernille jumps up and rushes to Magda’s room. She tears the door open.

Magda is sitting in front of her laptop, apparently just waiting for the connection to establish. She turns around and starts to scold at her. “You know that the interview is about to start, what are you…” She stops when she sees Pernille look at the night stand.

A mischievous smile appears on her face. “I put it away…”

Of course she did! And she obviously very much enjoys that Pernille for once seems worried about something she didn’t put away properly.

Pernille just raises her hand and disappears out of the door just seconds before Magda’s connection with the TV studio is up.

Also this an experience that a big part of the world shares right now: Everybody gets to see everybody's private home. However for most people it’s just their colleagues, students or teachers who inspect the bookshelves, family pictures and wallpapers behind their desks. For them it’s a nationwide broadcast on Danish and Swedish national TV, so an inappropriate background is a little more awkward for them than it would be for most other people. 

As annoying as Magda’s OCD-bordering tidiness can be at times, there are moments when it can be pretty convenient.

Since a large part of the world is in the same mess right now a sense of togetherness develops. Even though everybody is supposed to stay away from each other you have to stick together. Everyone is supposed to do what they can to help to get everybody through this.

So it’s part boredom but also part the feeling that this might be what they can contribute, when they get increasingly active on social media.There are people who are hit a lot harder by this than they are. If they can lighten some fans’ mood by providing them with some nice content, they’ll do it.

Their cooking adventures and training sessions find their way to Instagram. Pernille can’t contain herself to make a series of Magda’s efforts to beat her in the tablet game.

They dare their first q&a together which is an interesting experience.

There are a few question that with a mumbled “What the fuck…?!” find their way to the bin immediately. Other questions need a longer contemplation of what they are willing to share.

You can never take back an information once it’s out there, but you can always tell something at a later occasion if in the end you think it’s worth sharing. So they stick to the less profound questions for now.

They like to talk about their relationship, about each other. They got teased by their friends right from the beginning about how ridiculously proud they were of each other. It’s not that they consciously try to find reasons to bring the other up in any conversation or interview. It just happens. They are so omnipresent in each other's life that it’s hard to talk about anything without the other somehow having a role in it, but admittedly they don’t exactly try to avoid mentioning each other either.

Pernille looks at Magda who is concentrating on the questions showing up on her phone and smiles. Who wouldn’t want to show off a girlfriend like that?

Anyway there is more to this than that.

Just like the increasing interest in their relationship since the picture last summer, this doesn’t feel like they just became a part of profane celebrity’s gossip. They have understood that this has a much greater significance.

It’s not just about satisfying people’s curiosity. They provide an insight into what a same-sex realtionship can be like... Which in their case is... absolutely fucking happy!

There might be a 13 year old out there struggling with a realisation that has just started to lurk in the back of her head. And who might have an easier time to get used to or even like that idea when she sees that this is what she can be in for.

Since the beginning of all of this they have regular video calls with their families.

That’s nothing new, they often do that. What makes it weird now, is the uncertainty of when they will actually be able to see them again in person. The borders are mostly still open for nationals and residents, but in this situation you don’t exactly travel just for a little weekend visit with your family. And besides that, Magda and Pernille are neither nationals nor residents of the same country. Once Pernille leaves Britain, will she be able to get in again? And could Magda travel to either Denmark or Germany right now?

Who would have expected that borders within Europe could ever be a problem again if you owned a Swedish or Danish passport?

So they’ll just stay where they are as long as possible.

It’s a weird realisation that it’s a luxury that they can afford to not have sex every night. Magda laughs at Pernille’s way to put it into words but she knows immediately what she means.

This is the longest time they’ve spent together since Pernille left Linköping. During the time periods they’re not together, they can always talk via facetime, watch TV and football together via facetime, even flirt and exchange words of endearments via facetime. So when they actually meet up, all of that feels like a waste of time. They often just have one night! For everything that is not possible via facetime...

It doesn’t feel like an obligation obviously. They look forward to it, they enjoy every night they have together, of course. But they also always know that if they don’t make use of that night, the next opportunity will be weeks away.

Now they know that tonight when Pernille starts to drift off while watching TV, she can just fall asleep in Magda’s lap. Magda will wake her up, when she herself wants to go to bed and Pernille will stumble to the bedroom with her, get ready for bed half-asleep to then just entangle herself with Magda under the covers and fall asleep again. 

It won’t feel like a wasted night that they could have ceased in a much better way, because they know that they will have the next morning or tomorrow night or the night after and the night after... to do anything they want.

They miss football!

Also in this regard it’s great to be with someone who understands. Who doesn’t blame you for whining about football when there obviously are more important things right now. They get that contrary to the problems other people might have right now, neither their life nor their livelihood for now depends on that they can start playing again. But anyway they miss it desperately!

Some technical training is part of their daily practise of course. They also arrange little game situations, one on one, tackling each other or trying to get the ball past one another. They are having their Instagram followers cheer for either Denmark or Sweden, when they arrange little competitions against each other, because they really need that.

But this is not football. This is not the game they love.

When Magda stops one of Pernille’s attacks there is obviously no one there to pass to. When Pernille gets past Magda that’s it… No teammates she could pass the ball to who would then score…

It’s little moves that might be nice to practise but it’s just seconds where they can imagine that they’re actually playing football but then it’s over.

They take their training seriously, they need to stay in shape, but anyway it’s weird to train without knowing when they might even need their skills again.

They are professionals. During training or matches they never lose focus. They never did. Even after they had just gotten together in Linköping, they could end up with the face at the other's breasts when they fell over without having to even consciously focus again before they got up and just continued.

At times they would meet on the football ground out of their official training and do less serious private practice sessions. Then they would start to goof around, touching more than might have been necessary, allowing themselves to lose focus and end up in the grass giggling.

In recent years they hardly ever just casually played like that. When they met they ran together but even during their holidays they mostly had other plans.

Now there is hardly anything they don’t have time for. When they continue to play after their scheduled training it’s still certainly not Magda’s urge to win that gets more casual, but the tactics she resorts to do.

The split second Pernille is occupied with wondering if that hand she felt at her bottom actually ended up there accidentally is enough for Magda to win a tackle. The slight smile on Magda’s face when she runs off with the ball tells Pernille that she knew exactly what she was doing

But there are two who can play this game and Pernille for sure has her ideas how to distract Magda as well.

They finish their training session when an attempt to steal the ball ends in a heap of entangled arms and legs in the grass. Pernille is pretty sure Magda hit her legs instead of the ball on purpose. She also knows that she could have caught herself if she had really tried and the flighting smile on Magda’s face, when also she falls over and ends up on top of her, tells her that Magda wasn’t very eager to keep her balance either.

The ball rolls off, no one cares where to.

Their faces just centimetres away from each other, they agree without words that both of them have no interest in getting up to find the ball again.

Pernille puts her arms around Magda’s neck above her, drawing her down into a kiss.

In the end they need to remind themselves that in a London street with terraced houses high wooden privacy fences can shield you from the immediate view from the neighbouring garden, but that there are still windows in the upper floors everywhere around.

Spring doesn’t care about Corona. It’s weird to see that for humanity everything has been turned upside down, but the trees start to get leaves and the birds are blaring out that they are on a quest to find a suitable mate like nothing unusual has happened.

After their training Magda and Pernille sit in Magda’s garden and enjoy the sun. Technically it’s scarcely spring yet, but when the sun is out like it is now it almost feels like summer is approaching.

Pernille lies back in a garden chair and watches the white clouds in the sky and suddenly realises that she hasn't seen or heard a plane in days! Or has it been weeks even?!

With London being surrounded by airports there are usually constantly planes not just high in the sky but lowly flying over for take-off or final descent. They’re sometimes annoyingly loud but mostly you got so used to them that you don’t even notice them anymore. Now they are just gone.

They already noticed a few days ago that the constant noise from the main roads that in a city like London you usually hear everywhere has almost ceased.

Noone is going anywhere anymore.

Even if Pernille got more or less used to the situation by now, there are moments like these when things get creepy again. When she realises just what an impact on everything all of this actually has.

Magda is laying in the sun chair beside her. Pernille reaches out and takes her hand. Magda opens her eyes and gives her questioning look. Pernille just slightly shakes her head. She doesn’t feel like explaining and Magda just leans back in her chair again interlacing her fingers with Pernille’s. She doesn’t need an explanation, if this is what Pernille wants right now for whatever reason. They continue their sunbath hand in hand in an unusually silent London.

There have been hints. While the messages from the English clubs contain more and more infos about the conditions under which the players might maybe be allowed to travel to their families for the time being, the messages from Germany contain a certain underlying tone of: Get ready!

And then the news is there!

She will play again! There seem to be weird conditions involved that aren’t even completely clear yet. But she will play again! Soon!

Pernille wonders if she ever in her life has felt as divided as she does now, when she sits in Magda’s passenger seat, Magda driving her to the airport.

She can hardly count how often she and Magda have said goodbye to each other in recent years - with the huge difference that they always knew when they would see each other again. Even if they didn’t have a specific date they had at least an idea.

Now… They don’t…

German travel restrictions leave no loopholes for a non-resident with a Swedish passport. Pernille’s club just informed everyone pretty clearly that every person any player has contact with is an additional risk and that they certainly don’t need that right now. So it wasn’t even worth a try to ask for possibilities to pull some strings.

They drive in silence. Pernille has no idea what to say. At least she will play football again! She is the lucky one here! Magda is going to stay here. Maybe go home to her family soon, that’s what it looks like right now. But Pernille will play again!

It wasn’t easy to book a flight. There aren’t many planes flying anymore. She had to take a pretty weird connection but at least she found one at all.

There have been many discussions in recent weeks if wearing masks is advisable. Even the experts don’t seem to be sure, but, yes, probably… But even if there was an official advice it would be hard to follow it anyway, because any attempt to obtain a mask anywhere is about as promising as finding hand sanitizer or toilet paper.

Now with the prospect of getting on a plane, a confined space, with many other people from who knows where, and with an air conditioning circling the air but certainly not filtering out any viruses, they went on a mission and actually succeeded to obtain masks for the flight. 

Even if no one seems sure if it actually helps, it certainly feels better to have one.

Magda will just drop her off. Pernille has to travel for work, but Magda has no business running around at the airport. And even if she was allowed to - a place with many people from many different countries is not exactly the place you want to be right now if you don’t have to. Bad enough that Pernille has to get in there.

They’re not even sure if Magda is supposed to leave the house to take Pernille to the airport. She could take a taxi. But Magda doesn’t even want to hear about that and insists on taking her.

For once it’s no problem to find a place to park to drop Pernille off. “There must be some advantage to all of this!” Magda tries to joke.

At least they can take their time with no one waiting for their place.

In the end she has to go. Putting on the mask before she enters the airport building, dragging her suitcase behind her. A suitcase that she packed for a tournament in Portugal and a few days in London. Who would have thought that the world would look like this when she would eventually travel back?

She turns around in the automatic door and waves at Magda who’s still sitting in her car looking after her. Magda lifts her hand to wave as well.

Then Pernille turns around and heads for the check-in. She will fucking play fucking football again!

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think!


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